Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington “did not want” to be the lead in West End’s ‘Slave Play’

Some actors are so skilled at their roles that the audience often perceives them as one. Game of Thrones‘ Kit Harington gained immense fame after the show’s success made his character Jon Snow a household figure. Harington will now be making a return to his roots. The MCU star will be seen on stage at West End in the production titled ‘Slave Play’.

Kit Harington returns to the stage in Slave Play

Harington has been cast alongside Fisayo Akinade, Aaron Heffernan, and Olivia Washington in the upcoming West End show Slave Play.

Slave Play was originally staged in 2018 at New York Theatre Workshop before transferring to Broadway’s John Golden Theatre in 2019. The production received 12 nominations at the 74th Tony Awards. It broke the record previously set by the revival of “Angels in America” to become the most Tony-nominated non-musical play of all time.

The production is now transferring to London’s West End and will play June 29 – Sept. 21 at the Noël Coward Theatre.

What is Slave Play about?

Set at the MacGregor Plantation, where the Old South is still very much alive and thriving, is the contentious drama about race, identity, and sexuality in 21st-century America. It centers on three multiracial couples trying to revitalize their relationships through “Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy.”

Kit Harington didn’t wish to play the lead

Slave Play writer Jeremy O. Harris recently revealed in an interview with The Guardian that the Game of Thrones star wasn’t willing to play the lead. She said, “Kit was saying ‘I don’t want this to be Kit Harington in ‘Slave Play,” this is an ensemble play and I’m not even the lead. He knows the weight his name carries and how that could become a distraction, if we allowed it to be.”

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